In a computer system, it is likely that a user will desire to move data from computer program A to computer program B. Once the data from computer program A has been copied into computer program B, it's also common for the user (working in program B) to then desire to edit the source data in program A. Prior experience with this problem required the user to launch the original application (program A), edit the original document or file, and, when finished editing, re-export that document or file back to program B. Re-exporting may also involve converting formats from the format compatible with program A to the program B format. It may also then require program B to re-integrate the new version of the data into the main file of program B.
The next evolutionary step was to enable the user in program B to launch the source file (in program A) directly from the exported destination file (in program B), so that the user could then edit the original source file. However, even in such a situation, the user is generally not launching the actual original application. Rather, the original application is brought into the destination file (in program B).
Existing applications, such as Fireworks™ (version 2) and Dreamweaver™ (version 2) [both of which are trademarked products of Macromedia Inc.], provide limited functionality in addressing this common problematic situation. Fireworks™ is an advanced graphics development application that is optimized for developing Web graphics by operating on both image data and on Web functionality associated with image data that may be defined by interactive languages such as hypertext markup language (HTML), extensible markup language (XML), Java, JavaScript, and the like. Dreamweaver™ is a Web development tool that may use the graphics files developed in Fireworks™. A method for launching and editing independent applications within Dreamweaver™ allows the user to select an image, for example, a graphics interchange format (GIF) image, and choose a menu command to edit the original source file, which may be in a different format, such as portable network graphics (PNG). By choosing the edit command in Dreamweaver™, Fireworks™ typically launches and attempts to find the original source file for the GIF image selected in Dreamweaver™. Fireworks™ generally provides for developing graphics PNG file, thus, the original Fireworks™ source file that corresponds to the GIF file selected in Dreamweaver™ would typically be a PNG file. Fireworks™ would usually then open the original PNG source file enabling the user to edit the file in the native application, Fireworks™.
When the user finishes editing the original PNG source file in Fireworks™, a menu command is typically chosen to save the user's edits. The user must also typically export manually any interactive and/or computer-readable code associated with the original PNG file. The user then generally manually exits Fireworks™ in order to return to Dreamweaver™. If the user has made any modifications or changes to the Web functionality in HTML or other code or script, Dreamweaver™ typically requires the user to first manually select the original image in the page, delete it with all associated code, and then typically to make another menu selection which prompts Dreamweaver™ to import the modified HTML, code, or other script associated with the original source file.
If, on the other hand, the user has only made graphical changes to an image, those modifications are usually automatically reloaded into the Dreamweaver™ file. However, because no other data, code, or script is transferred from the editing application, Fireworks™, the user will usually be required to make manual format modifications once the image file is reintegrated into the Dreamweaver™ file. Therefore, each type of edit made by a user typically requires additional manual steps for reintegration into the calling application, Dreamweaver™.
While this process creates interactivity between two separate applications, the unskilled user, or even a reasonably skilled user, does not typically appreciate, or even realize, that the Fireworks™ edit session is a special launch and edit session originating from another application, namely Dreamweaver™. To the user it appears as though he/she simply launched the second application, Fireworks™, and opened up the original source file. There is no visual indication to the user that editing the source file (in Fireworks™) would have any effect inside the calling application, Dreamweaver™ and the user must typically manually re-import or modify some of the data inside Dreamweaver™. At best, this is a confusing process.
In operation, when the user finishes editing in Fireworks™, he/she must typically switch back to Dreamweaver™ manually. Dreamweaver™ has no functionality to determine that the user in Fireworks™ has finished editing an image. Because Dreamweaver™ does not reload anything other than simple image changes, it generally cannot bring any of the web functional changes made in Fireworks™ back into the Dreamweaver™ file. Furthermore, the user must typically make manual changes in the calling application, Dreamweaver™, to fix the formatting of images edited and reloaded from the called application, Fireworks™. This problem has been partially addressed with a dialog box/menu in Dreamweaver™ that illustrates to the user something along the lines of “You are editing an image from Fireworks™. Press Done when you are finished.” This dialog is typically hidden by the Fireworks™ session window. The user would typically have to exit Fireworks™ and then manually click a Done button or select some other menu choice/option in the dialog to manually communicate to Dreamweaver™ that the editing session in Fireworks™ had finished. The selection instructs Dreamweaver™ to bring the resulting data back into Dreamweaver™ in the format typically edited by Dreamweaver™ and is re-integrated into the original Dreamweaver™ file.
There is an intermediate improvement in Fireworks™ (version 3) and Dreamweaver™ (version 3) that makes an incremental improvement to address these problems. At the start of an edit session, Dreamweaver™ transmits a command line parameter to Fireworks™ indicating the path of the original source file and prompts Fireworks™ to open the file for editing. Fireworks™ then typically allows the user to edit the images and Web functionality associated with the source file. When the user finishes editing, he/she must usually manually close the Fireworks™ edit session. Fireworks™ then generally passes a temporary file to Dreamweaver™ with a command line parameter indicating that Fireworks™ has completed the editing session and attempting to interpret any changes made to the formatting of the images. Dreamweaver™ reintegrates the edited image data from the temporary file into the Dreamweaver™ file. However, there is still no indication to the user that the user is launching the editing application, Fireworks™, from the source application, Dreamweaver™, and provides no clear visible indication of how to return to Dreamweaver™ from Fireworks™. In fact, there is typically no clear indication that the user is even working in the called application, Fireworks™. Furthermore, no web functionality data associated with the image (i.e., HTML, XML, Java, JavaScript, and the like) is exported back to the calling application. The user must still typically manually re-import all of the modified web functionality into Dreamweaver™ if more than simple graphical changes were done in Fireworks™.